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Tire
Monster Truck tires are specially designed tires for monster trucks. History Today's standard monster truck tires are derived from tires that were used for years on farm equipment such as tractors. Bob Chandler, who is argued to be the inventor of monster truck and built Bigfoot, kept putting larger and larger tires on his truck until he decided to recycle some old tractor tires for his truck. Using these same tires, Bob managed to get the truck to crush some cars, much to the audience's delight. These tires have since become the regular monster truck standard. Description The average monster truck tires is exactly 66 inches tall and 43 inches wide. One tire alone, without the rim, can weigh anywhere from 800-900lbs; when multiplied by four, takes up about a third of the truck's average 10,000lb weight. These numbers, of course, exempt the "Bigfoot 5" tires (see the "Tire Styles" list below for more information). runs its tires backwards.]] A team can go through as many as eight tires in a single year. Tires can cost $2500-$7500 each. A majority of trucks have their tires facing forward with the tire stripes pointing downwards. On occasion, trucks may run some, or all tires facing the opposite direction. This may be for stylistic reasons, or because the backwards facing tire is an opposite side replacement for a flat. Interestingly, despite their size and rigidity, due to the weight of the trucks, the tires tend to squish and flex a surprising amount. It's generally only for a split second, but sometimes the tires are squashed so much that the actual rims of the wheels make contact with the ground. To combat this, some drivers over inflate the tires. This, however, makes them more at risk for tire pops. Trailer Wheels having been unloaded from its trailer.]] Monster truck tires are so large with their regular tires that they cannot fit into their transportation trailers. Because of this, the tires have to be mounted on and unmounted back off after every show weekend. Much smaller tires are put onto the truck so it can be driven back into its trailer. See the video below to see how its trailer tires are switched out with its competition ones. Trailers have doors on the side that allow for the tires to go in and out easily when loading and unloading the truck. Tire Styles and "Cutting" Monster truck tires are usually manufactured the same way (though differently depending on the manufacturer), but that doesn't stop these big tires having an almost endless number of various designs and styles. Some have larger "stripes" than others, more stripes than others, or a few even have no stripes at all. To achieve a particular design (other than that which the tire is manufactured as), the tire must be "cut". This process is when the tire has rubber trimmed off of it to give it a particular look, sort of like a hair cut. Tire cutting is done though for more than just stylistic reasons though, different tire trends result in different performance. Tire cutting is also done to accommodate the driver's driving skills and the conditions the truck will be driven in, or at least most likely driven in. Cutting each individual tire takes approximately 50 consecutive hours. Types There are eleven documented tire designs on this page, as listed below. See the gallery at the bottom of the page for examples. * Standard/Regular: The typical, most well known tire; with curved stripes. * Chunky: A more rigid tire cut with straighter stripes. "Chunky" tires reigned the old school monster trucks; they are mostly phased out today, but still in occasional use. * Hybrid: Fittingly, a hybrid tire consisting of the standard and "Chunky" tire designs mixed together. The second most used design; mostly used in Monster Jam, but used by outside teams as well, including Sudden Impact racing, which uses a blue variant of this tire. * Fine cut: a smooth tire cut. Rather than stripes, the tire has "Layers", with the separation of each layer typically thought of as the "stripe". * Half striped: These tires have mostly run on the Predator monster truck (since its redesign in 2006) although other team Predator trucks, like Pouncer have also used them as well. * Plain: "Plain" tires of rare use, mostly on ride trucks, but even more rarely on race trucks. Just like the half striped tires, Team Predator trucks have exclusively run these tires (usually just two in the front or back tires) back in the early 2000's. * Checkered: similar to "plain", but with more of a checkered pattern to it. * Scaly: regular tires with a scale-like pattern. This kind has a few sub-designs to it as well. * Overlapping: this tire has very rigid stripes that overlap each other. * Tractor tires: Smaller tires that were used one some of the first monster trucks ever built, including Grave Digger 1's first incarnation. * Mud bogging tires: Similar to tractor tires, but are even smaller, and specifically used for mud bogging trucks. They help the truck get more traction in the mud. * Bigfoot 5 Tires: These tires get their name from their most famous truck, Bigfoot 5, the first in the world to use such tire (they were also used on its clone Bigfoot 7). Like the "scaly" tire, this tire also has sub-designs; for example, Superfoot used a different variation of this size tire. Well Known Tire Brands *BKT: BKT Tires are run on all Monster Jam trucks since 2014 and is a major sponsor of the league. However, the move was heavily criticized by most fans during the first wave of the tires due to their thinner surface, lighter weight, and smoother cut, leading trucks to tend to blow its tires easily. BKT, who were new to monster trucks and never made tires for them before, strengthened and otherwise readjusted their tires to address the issues. Despite the changes and fixes, false rumors still circulate about the strength of the tires, and them being the cause of the decrease of crush cars (which was actually due to safety, and that most of the drivers ended up preferring the dirt created obstacles.) *Firestone: A well known leading brand for monster truck tires is Firestone. It has a thicker cut which gives the truck more grip. From the early years of monster trucks, this brand have been used on most trucks outside Monster Jam. Bigfoot is known for having Firestone as a longtime sponsor, which even led to the creation of the Firestone Bigfoot monster truck. *Goodyear: Another pioneer of monster truck tires is Goodyear. It was used in the early years of monster trucks and set the standards for many other brands. *Ukraine: Ukraine Tires is one of the widely used monster truck tires in the business. Before the switch to BKT, most Monster Jam trucks used this kind of tire. Due to its finer cut and sharper corners, the Ukraine Tires are more durable and can withstand a large amount of abuse. Tire Incidents Trucks can often times lose tires from hard hits, causing them to roll away over great distances. The large weight of the tire can pose a safety risk when this happens. In 2012, when Marc Mcdonald, driving El Toro Loco in Arlington Texas, lost a tire during freestyle, it bounced several times, initially in excess of 20+ feet high. It collided with the Fiesta truck and landed wedged between the truck and the wall; thankfully, nobody was hit by the tire. That was the second time that night a truck had lost a tire, a nearly similar incident happened with Bounty Hunter during that same show. In 2015 when the Raging Bull monster truck lost a tire at a monster truck show and caused it to roll into a fence that spectators were standing next to. The tire crashed into the fence and injured nine spectators on the other side. Thankfully, nobody was killed. In 1998, a fire burned down a garage resulting in Demon, Kimosabe, Showtime, and the Weapon 1 Ride Trucks all being destroyed. The fire was caused by tires, that caught fire due to a faulty battery on a "power wheels" vehicle. The tires expanded from the heat until they violently burst, resulting in further explosions and causing the destruction of the garage. How Tires are Added to a Truck Gallery Tires.jpg|Regular tires. Rigid_tires.jpg|a chunkier, more rigit tire cut. More_rigid_tires_2.jpg|Ditto 2014_0803Mansfield0041.jpg|Firestone tire. eltoroloco.jpg|El Toro Loco's "Hybrid" tires. Brute_Force_tires.jpg|Brute Force with the "Fine cut" tires. Half_striped_tires_Predator.jpg|Predator's "Half striped" tires. BF T.jpg Cc890577-6bbf-4538-b7ee-182dda2c4067.jpg|Grave Digger 11 running "plain" tires. Pouncer_plain_tires.jpg|Pouncer with two front "plain" tires, one of the very few times they have ever been used on a racing truck. Also, the back tires are backwards. DaleJr.jpg|Dale Earnhardt, Jr. with "checkered" tires. Scaley_tire.png|Two variants of the Scaly tire on Storm Damage. Overlapping_stripes.jpg|Gangsta, with 'overlapping" tires. 162.jpg|The Red Ford Grave Digger with the tractor tires. 5_ton_turd_3.jpg|5 Ton Turd with smaller, mud bogging tires. 5169685402 bc296e9ec5 z.jpg|Bigfoot 5 with its notable 10 foot tall tires. 3623921652_b51da74a77.jpg|Superfoot with a different variation of the 10 foot tire. Grave_Digger's_BKT_tires.jpg|Grave Digger's brand new BKT tires with purple bedlocks. Shop_of_tires.jpg|A tire shop full of monster truck tires. Sudden_Impacts_blue_tires.jpg|Sudden Impact is famous for its blue tires, made with a blue coloring apposed to the regular black. Strait Jacket with blue tires..jpg Blue_tires_ditto.jpg|Brand new tires delivered to Sudden Impact Racing. Bigfoot_FlatTire.jpg|Bigfoot get's a flat tire. El_Toro_Loco_tire.png|El Toro Loco loses a tire in Arlington 2012. The lost tire in this photo bounced the ground once and flew up over 20ft. Tire_collision.png|The same tire as in the previous picture bounces right over Fiesta. Grave_Digger_rim.jpg|Grave Digger loses a right-back tire, leaving only the rim. Rgst210c.jpg|Ragin Steel, crushing a parked Sting with a very damaged flat tire. redbluff16.jpg Screenshot_20190206-163008.jpg|Basketball Tires Multimedia 33 img 1422358173.jpg 52363116_10211074480657942_8560526461298016256_n.jpg Category:Monster Truck Terms Category:Monster Truck Components